Suzuki Motor Company, as almost everyone will know, makes motorcycles (since 1952) and cars (since 1955) as well as some other motorised equipment. And now it also markets ready-to-eat curry meals. Yes, curry as in the food that Malaysians are very familiar with.
Although the news is only now being publicised outside the company, curry meals have been offered to Suzuki employees at its factory cafeteria in Japan since early 2024. Working with Torizen, a 150-year old restaurant in the same city of Hamamatsu as Suzuki, kits for food service providers were developed that enable them to serve Indian vegetarian dishes with simple cooking.
The choice of Indian food is not surprising because Suzuki has a close association with India where it began a joint venture with Maruti in 1981 and then made Maruti Suzuki a subsidiary in 2007. Starting with the Suzuki Fronte/Alto-based Maruti 800 in 1983, the brand has dominated the market up till today and its factories also export models like the Jimny.
The importance of the Indian operation has led to the presence of many Indian employees at the Japanese factory, engineering and R&D centres. To create a more pleasant environment that can motivate foreign employees further, Suzuki decided to provide them with meals which are more familiar for them.
“By improving the food environment for diverse human resources including India, this collaboration with Torizen will create a foundation for employees to further flourish and contribute to the revitalization of local communities. Suzuki will continue to promote initiatives for co-creation with local communities for its employees,” said Toshihiro Suzuki, Representative Director and President of the company, when he launched the initiative in February 2024.
Curry in Japan
Actually, curry is not alien to the Japanese and is also popular as a meal. In fact, curry has been in Japan since at least the Meiji era of the late 1800s. British sailors residing there introduced masala curry powder which the Japanese eventually came to appreciate. Over time, they would create their own style of curry rice (kare raisu) which you see in supermarkets and Japanese restaurants today.
4 instant curry meals
With the curry meals having been well accepted (Indian employees praised them for being authentic), someone in Suzuki’s Special Sales Division must have seen the potential of offering such meals to the public. Again collaborating with Torizen, the company has created instant meals with 4 different recipes. And to associate the brand with the meals, each one is named after a Suzuki product : Swift (tomato lentil dhal curry); Jimny (chickpea masala curry); Hayabusa (daikon sambal curry); and V-Strom 1050DE (green vegetable moong dhal curry).
Like the Japanese curry sold in supermarkets, the Suzuki curry meals come in pouches. These pouches can be boiled for 2 to 7 minutes (great for camping), or the pouch can be opened and then put in a microwave oven to have a hot meal ready in about 2 minutes.
Sold online
For now, the Suzuki curry pouches are offered only in Japan (918 yen/about RM26 each). It’s not known if they will be sold outside Japan but since they are sold via the Special Sales Division’s online business portal, orders could be placed from other countries. Apparently, initial demand has been greater than expected and all current stocks for this month are already taken up.
